last day of school

 Can't believe today is Caroline's last day of 3k...crazy stuff!  Our sweet neighbor Megan is usually our official photographer for these special days.  However, baby Avin decides to come a little early yesterday and therefore we had to ask another sweet neighbor Marla.  Thanks Marla!

 Caroline "posing" don't you just love the smile and the knee... :0)

 Caroline and her classmates had a little end of the year celebration in their class.  Since I couldn't be there, Andy took lunch at 9am so that the doodle bug wouldn't be by herself.  Once upstairs, mommy took over and daddy headed back to work.  We had a BLAST!!

only Caroline and Lydia would come down head first!!

 Caroline and Elim

 enjoying herself, look at the expression on her face!!

 a happy girl

 Caroline and her sweet friends, Lydia and Hunter

 

 Caroline, Lydia and Leah

she played with these girls EVERY DAY!!

 

 After all the fun at Calvary, we headed over to Aunt Tomi Jeans to play.  They hosted their end of the year party and had a HUGE water slide.  Of course, Caroline preferred to play in the pool first...it didn't take long until she was ready to try out the slide!

 having fun!

 Ansley Kate joined the fun

 Jay did as well

 

After a long, fun day...the ride home!

Hello SUMMER VACATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

School Fun

Yesterday I had my camera at school for some end of the year fun with my kiddos.  I happened to look outside my window and found these two girls having a blast together.  I think they were picking flowers aka grass but they were having a ball!

So thankful to be able to see Caroline in action!

After school we stopped by Mrs. M's class to give her her end of the year gift.  Of course, she "needed" Caroline to help her and Caroline was thrilled!

I think she was a little excited! :0)

We love this precious little lady and could not be more thrilled with Caroline's 3k year!  We have watched our little girl blossom in so many ways.  Keri has such a gift with young children.  They feel totally comfortable with her.  She encourages them every step of the way but gives them a good challenge when needed.  Most importantly, Caroline LOVED going to school every morning.We will miss Mrs. M next year but Caroline is SO EXCITED to be coming to mommy's 4k hall!!!

Happy birthday Tyler & wasp sting...

Today was our last day picking up Tyler from school.  As you can tell Caroline was OUT!  She slept about 30 minutes while we waited in a cool, shady place in car line.

 

 Tyler's birthday is this Friday.  However, he celebrated this past weekend with a pool party.  We were out of town and unable to make it.  So we thought it would be fun to treat him to some ice cream after school.  He was so excited!

Once we got home, the kiddos wanted to play outside.  It had been raining and was thundering so we thought it would be a great idea to head out there to try to beat the rain.  They were having a great time playing until Caroline got stung by a wasp.  The darn thing got under her shorts and got angry and stung her not once but TWICE!!!  She was pitiful!  Oh I felt so sorry for her!  Thankfully Daddy was home and immediate got the first aid kit that CSX gave families last year.  I got the stinger out and after about 30 minutes the swelling went down and she was good to go.  I will say that she took full advantage of the sting.  She got in trouble later this afternoon and said "Oh it was because my leg hurt that I cried..."

Happy birthday Tyler!  Hope you have a great day!

Caroline's second hair cut

It's been almost a year since Caroline's last hair cut.  We knew it was time to get it trimmed but had just been putting it off.  Her hair gets to a point where it's super heavy, the top looses it's curl and the tangles are just too much!  So I made an appointment with someone local, who has cut my hair but of course has not cut Caroline's.  I was super nervous because lots of people have warned me that a curly hair mistake it a lot worse than a straight hair mistake like mine.  Anyway, thankfully Miss Jennifer did a great job!  Caroline was so patient as she sat there for almost 35 minutes.

the back before

 the front before

 during-not too sure about this

 starting to enjoy the crazy hair clips

 the finished front

 the finished back

It's amazing the difference in the bounce with just trimming an inch and a half off.  It's way shorter than before and looks as if we cut several inches off.  Oh well, gotta love curly hair and this precious princess!!!!!

Garden Update

We are continuing to enjoy the yummy goodness from our garden.  Until this point the only thing we have enjoyed is the lettuce and spinach.  However, yesterday we headed over to our friends Susan to check on the garden we have there.  (We didn't have room to plant anything else in our garden box so she offered us some space in her garden.  Woo Hoo I planted squash, zucchini, cucumbers and tomatoes.)  Things are growing like crazy over there.  Caroline enjoyed looking at our items and helping me pick what was ready.

lots of squash will hopefully be ready within the next week!!

our zucchini

 our first fatality...a cutter worm, which I have never heard of before, decided to make a meal off my beautiful plant.  according to Susan, it looked great the day before.  now it's a goner so we had to pic the tiny little zucchini and put the bush in the composted

Caroline was very proud of her basket of goodies

love this sweet picture of my little gardner

back at home, we had to invest in some taller stakes.  my tomato plants are growing like crazy!

our smaller bell peper

better boys, yum

grape tomatoes

 

One thing that I love about the garden is Caroline's excitement!  She enjoyed helping me water and look for new items.  Another neat thing is she loves to try/eat anything that comes from our garden or herb box.  Sunday night I made a tomato/basil pizza.  At first she said "I don't like this green stuff."  When I told her it was from our garden, she ate every single basil leaf on her plate!  Love it!

Bear friends

Caroline wasn't too thrilled to see me come in with my camera this morning but I LOVED this picture!  She had her bears "sleeping" and all their baby clothes in their baskets!  It's so fun to watch her playing with them and seeing just where her imagination will go!

Fun day with friends

We had an awesome day with friends today.  We started out by meeting B for breakfast at a yummy pancake house.  She texted mother's day evening and asked if she could see Caroline.  We decided that today would work well since we were already in town to hang out with Chris and Dargan.  Breakfast went really well.  Caroline was a jewel.  There were several times I would look over as B was totally captivated by Caroline.  I pray that Caroline will always know just how much her birth mom loves her.

After breakfast we headed over to Chris and Dargan's.  We have been trying to get a play day together now for several months.  The kids had a great time!  Caroline and Dolan were best of friends!  Clara and Jennings enjoyed the day as well.  Super sad I didn't get a picture of Clara...She is getting so big and oh so beautiful! 

playing upstairs

Jennings, such a happy baby

Dolan pushing Caroline

Caroline pushing Dolan

playing outside

best buds!

So thankful for a great day with friends!  Can't wait until next time! :0)

Being sentimental...

Sometimes being a mommy (or daddy) is tiring...there is ALWAYS something that needs to be done-laundry, dinner, dishes, bathrooms, etc.  It's so easy for me to get caught up in my "role" that I forget to enjoy this life.  With Caroline being sick the last few days, I have really had to put those other things on the back burner for a while and just be with her.  While my house is a wreck, my heart is bursting with love!  Like the kind of love where I literally think I could hurt her if I squeezed her as tight as I wanted!  Like I can't get enough kisses or snuggles or books or baby dolls!  So thankful she is feeling more like herself and running on all cylinders but I am also thankful for the little reminders of just how precious she is!

A little sweetness...

*You may wonder where I am going with this story, but read to the end!  You will be glad you did!

Tuesday night I woke up around 1:30 am to Caroline calling "Mommy."  Thinking she needed to potty or maybe she had had a bad dream, I was totally shocked when I kissed her forehead.  She was burning up!  After taking her temperature, I realized there was a good reason she was awake...her fever was 104!  Yikes, I don't think she has ever had a fever that HIGH!

The fever hung around yesterday and through the night last night.  So I decided that I would take her in today just to make sure it wasn't anything major.  Felt like a fool because she was smiling and happy as we waited in the waiting room.  After answering the usual "yes" she is eating, drinking, etc.  "No" she isn't complaining about her ears, tummy, etc, Dr. E checked her ears.  Sure enough she has an ear infection.  He gave us a prescription and sent us on our way.

Since it's been a year since her last ear infection, I forgot how much she HATES to take it.  She lost the first dose and tonight was torture!  She started crying the moment I mentioned taking her meds.  She said "I don't like the one I don't like!"  After trying to convince her for about 5 minutes, she still didn't want any part of it.  So it was time for tough love-take it like a big girl or I will hold you down and make you take it.  Guess what, mommy didn't win this one either! :0)  She took the entire sip (woo hoo I thought) but then it came out of her mouth and nose...oops!  As I was standing there I thought of the verse "I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me."  So I talked with Caroline about the verse and asked her if she wanted me to ask Jesus to help us and she did.  So we prayed telling Jesus about her hurting ears and yucky meds and she needed help to take her meds.  We said Amen, she grabbed the meds and guzzled!  Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!!!!  We also took a few sips of water in between but it went down!!  When she finished, I asked her "Who helped you do that?"  She said "Jesus helped me!  Thank you Jesus!"

I wasn't very humble about the moment!  I was so stinking happy, I was jumping up and down in the kitchen.  She said "Mommy, it's not nice to stomp your feet like that!"  I was thinking if she could learn to trust Jesus with the simple things like helping her take meds, I pray that she will learn to lean on him and trust him with the big stuff too! :0)

Who is Jesus

This morning Caroline and I were talking about Jesus.  I asked her "Who is Jesus?"  (thinking of various answers-God's son, our saviour, etc.)  She laughed, "He's the big boy mommy!" :0)

Silly girl

Last night we had about an hour at home between lunch with my mom and dinner with Andy's mom and family.  I was working on school stuff, Andy was resting and Caroline was hanging out in her room.  I happened to walk by to find this.  When I asked her what she was doing she said "It's time for my bears to go to sleep.  I am reading them two books."  It was a difficult picture to try to get but she has her bears in the crib and lovey is laying on a stool with another bear.

She has "learned" (ok maybe memorized for you non preschool teachers) to read the book "Red Hat, Blue Hat."  She absolutely loves it and wants to read it to us almost every night!  I am so thankful for her love for reading and pray that it continues!

Mother's Day

So thankful this precious little girl calls me Mommy!  We had a wonderful day!  My husband did a wonderful job of serving me and gave me most of the day off!  It was wonderful!  Several times throughout the day, Caroline would walk over, give me a hug and kiss and say "Happy Mothers Day!"  Obviously she doesn't really understand what it means because she was telling Pop, Jack and Uncle Greg Happy Mother's Day too. :0)  However, I sure did love getting some sweet loving from her and am so thankful for the loving little girl she is.  She really does have a BIG heart!

I don't know about you guys but I always go into things with expectations...BIG expectations.  How I think the day should go...what I deserve...what I need.  Today was no different.  I wanted to sleep in, yet CSX called at 5:45 am.  Since I was already awake, with no chances of going back to sleep, I hoped to enjoy some quiet time alone, but the princess got up at 6.   You know how you get the feeling, man this is going to be a bummer of a day...ok so maybe I am the only selfish one out there who thinks this way...:0)

Just then my sweet hubby came to the rescue and took over.  Got her breakfast, washed her hair, got her dressed, etc.  As I was getting showered and ready for the day, enjoying my alone time, my thoughts drifted to our pastors sermon last week "What do you See?"  I realized that I was choosing to see all the things in my day that weren't going according to my plans.  I then began to think about my Aunt Donna, who would be spending mothers day without one of her very own children...I thought about our friend Rose who would be spending the day with her sweet boy at MUSC...I thought about a young family in our church who lost their mother several years ago due to cancer...man, I soon realized I had a choice to make...do I see the things that aren't going according to my plans or do I see the awesome gifts the Lord has blessed me with and what a beautiful day it was!

As I decided to look at the goodness in my life, I thought about how far we have come and how much God has worked in our lives over the past four years.  Four (short) years ago today, I remember very vividly the sadness I felt as another Mother's day came to pass and we still didn't have a little one of our own.  I couldn't understand what in the world God was doing.  WHY?  That's all I could think...WHY me Lord?  WHY don't I have a little one to celebrate this day with?  Little did we know God was about to move in a BIG way in our lives!  We were about to be introduced to our earthly angel God was using to bring us the greatest gift ever!  This morning, one of the very first texts I received was from our birth mom.  She said "Happy Mothers Day to one of the very best moms I know!"  Tears whelmed in my eyes as I thought about her being all alone this Mother's day while I celebrated with the most precious gift ever-my sweet Caroline.  As I have said many times before, we are blessed with an amazing birth mom!  So thankful for her.  As you read this today, please say a special prayer for her-thanking God for her love for Caroline as well as strength to continue to move forward.

After church, we headed off to celebrate with my mom and sister-in-laws.  So thankful for these ladies and precious children!  As usual the kids had fun playing together!  Again my sweet hubby served the ladies by cleaning up the kitchen while we chatted!  What a great man!

We got home around 4:30 so we had about an hour before we met Andy's family at Outback.  We laid around the house, did a few things and then headed out.  The meal was super yummy and it was great to celebrate Andy's mom, sister, aunts and Mema.

So thankful for family, especially our little family.  This mother's day I am blessed to be the mom of a beautiful, healthy, spunky, passionate, caring, LOVING little girl!  Thank you Jesus for trusting ME with this little angel who calls me MOMMY! :0)

Relay for Life

Tonight's the first time in several years that we haven't made relay.  It's been a crazy few weeks and we just weren't able to make it tonight.  As I read status updates on FB, it made me sad...sad in many ways.  The first year we participated in Relay, it was for fun.  Fun to help others battling cancer.  The second year, Daddy was giving the opening speech, discussing his personal journey with cancer.  The third year he was doing great!  Really healing, in remission.  The fouth year, he barely made it.  He was too weak to shave or even dress himself.  But being the man he was, he didn't let it stop him!  He went, put a smile on and enjoyed the evening.  The fifth year, Mom and I poured everything we had into making it a success, remembering the amazing man he was and the awesome fight he fought!  Last year, we were able to celebrate the success of my sister in laws father's diagnosis.

Cancer is real, it affects so many of the ones we love!  So tonight as I lay in bed, I will shed a few (ok several) tears, remember the good times and be thankful for the advances the American Cancer Society is making!  Thanks to all who support such an amazing cause!  Praying for a CURE!

May family fun night and Liam's 1st birthday

Two years ago our friends Rhett and Farrah started Friday Familiy Fun Night during the summer!  They provide the main dish and we each bring something to go with it.  This year we kicked off the summer fun by celebrating their little boy Liam's 1st birthday.  We couldn't have asked for a better evening!  The weather was gorgeous and the kids had a blast!  And of course the adults did too!

Rylie and Caroline playing at the water table

 The birthday boy enjoying his cake!

 Caroline and Griffin

 Gray

 Catherine